Food Stamps: Are The Changes Being Made The Right Ones?
Too much food, you ask, how can there be too much food? Isn’t that a good thing?
While an abundance of food is considered a blessing, in many ways, it has become the root of a very disturbing and growing problem in the United States.
In the Bible, the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 – “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
What does that mean? It means that honest toil should be the only pathway to a full stomach.
What happens when the one or ones who do not work remain well fed despite their lack of labor due to inability or sloth?
Inability is a separate category, it could be to illness, age, accident or various types of disability. In this case it is appropriate for the person to receive assistance from his or her peers to care for his or her needs. No one should have a problem with taking care of the infirm.
The problem facing the United States is an abundance of food and other assistances that are available to those who CHOOSE not to work.
Across the regions of the United States, businesses post signs advertising their need for workers. Not every job is a senior vice president position but all are necessary for a business to run smoothly.
Many go unfilled, as a hungry belly or hungry children do not drive people to honest labor.
It seems that babies are born and they become the responsibility of society, the mother may or may not be married, but the expectation is that society will accept the financial responsibility of the child’s needs, as well as those of the parent who chooses to accept dependence on the government rather than employment.
In the past, the mother and the father tried to base the size of their family as closely as possible on their own ability to support the children they would bring into the world.
The corruption of the food stamp program through the previous administration is part of the reason that a generation of loafers has occurred.
People on the program will sell the food stamps to someone else for cash. They will then go to various food banks to fill their pantries. While the thrift stores, churches and charitable groups have the good of altruism on their side, they are contributing, in fact, enabling the ability to eat without honest toil.
Another ugly side effect is that many of the households who receive the food stamps and free food from the banks, have children who will still go to school or bed hungry. While schools are in session, there are the free breakfast and lunch programs, but during the summer, many children face hunger. It is unacceptable that this is happening in a country as rich as the United States.
To this end, the Trump administration is working on the idea of fundamentally changing the food stamp program.
Of course, it is meeting opposition from many sides as those who benefit from the current system balk at any kind of halt on their gravy train.
The food box delivery that is proposed by President Trump is aimed at eliminating the waste of food, the extravagant, or empty calorie purchases that are allowed and the fraud that is plaguing the system.
While it is in the early stages of development, the idea is sound.
It is imperative that a tourniquet be applied to bleeding of cash that is flowing from a dysfunctional system.
Honest work leads to self-esteem and people are happier with something productive to occupy their lives.
It is beyond unfair to take the fruits of the labor of those who work, and hand it tied with a bow to someone who feels that they would prefer not to work much as they will lose their government supports for food, rent, utilities and healthcare.
People were not made to be wards of the nanny state. They need to work for their living.
So sayeth the prophet of the Lord through divine intervention.
It is disturbing to see those on public assistance with designer bags, clothes, and other things that are considered expensive and extravagant to those who earn their money and have to keep to their budget to run their households.
With a President that is amendable to common sense change, now is the time to reform the welfare systems.
Image: CC0 Creative Commons; Excerpted from: https://pixabay.com/en/eating-ice-cream-person-man-boy-828510/